1685. Third moon, twelfth day. A violent wind.
1686. Earthquake. Sixth moon, twenty-eighth day, a comet came from the south-east as big as a peck-measure and as bright as the sun. It threaded the Southern Dipper and entered the Milky Way, where it became invisible. The sound of "heaven's drum" was heard four or five times.
1688. Twelfth moon, seventh day. Earthquake.
1689. Spring: famine. Sixth moon, first day: earthquake.
1691. Seventh moon, tenth day. Locusts.
1696. Floods and famine. In winter the district-magistrate provided free breakfasts.
1697. Government grain issued to save the people from starvation. Some however died of hunger.
1703. Floods and drought and a great famine in 1703 were followed in 1704 by deadly epidemics. More than half the population perished. The condition of the survivors was pitiful. They lived by eating the thatch that roofed their houses and they also ate human flesh. Land-tax remitted for three years.
1706. Great harvest.
1709. Rains injured crops. Famine.
1717. A great snowstorm at Weihaiwei on the twenty-sixth day of the first moon. People frozen to death. Eighth moon, rain and hail.
1719. Seventh moon. Great floods. Houses destroyed and crops ruined; the district-magistrate gave free breakfasts and issued grain for planting.
1723. Great harvest.
1724. Remission of three-tenths of land-tax for three years. Great snowfall in winter.
1725. In the second moon (about March) occurred the phenomenon of the coalescence of sun and moon and the junction of the jewels of the five planets.[40] [This has nothing to do with an eclipse. It is a phenomenon which is believed to indicate great happiness and prosperity, and good harvests. It is said to consist in the apparent simultaneous rising of sun and moon accompanied by peculiar atmospheric conditions. Some of the planets are supposed to go through a similar process.]
1730. Twelfth moon, twenty-eighth day (about January or February 1730), at nine in the evening, some beautiful parti-coloured clouds appeared in the north. They were resplendent with many tints intricately interwoven, and several hours passed before they faded away. Every one declared that the phenomenon betokened unexampled prosperity.
1736. First year of the reign of Ch'ien Lung. Three-tenths of the land-tax remitted. Eleventh moon, twenty-fourth and twenty-sixth days, earthquakes.
1739. Drought and floods.
1740. Land-tax remitted and public granaries opened.
1741. Seventh moon. A comet came from the west and did not fade till the twelfth moon. Great harvests.
1743. On the festival of the Ninth of the Ninth Moon a strange fish came ashore near Weihaiwei. Its head was like a dog's, its belly like a sea-turtle's. Its tail was six ch'ih long [say seven English feet] and at the end were three pointed prongs. On its back was a smaller fish, about ten inches long, which seemed to be made of nothing but spikes and bones. No one knew the name of either fish. It was suggested that perhaps the smaller one had fastened itself to the big one, and that the latter, unable to bear the pain of the small one's spikes, had dashed for the shore.
1747. Seventh moon, fifteenth day. Great storm: crops ruined.
1748. Locusts hid the sun and demolished the crops.
1749. Tenth moon, twenty-second day. Great storm and many drowned.
1751–2. Floods. Crops damaged by water and a hailstorm. Many died of starvation. Assistance given by Government, by the importation of grain from Manchuria.
1753. Good harvests.
1761. Great snowfall. Many geese and ducks frozen to death.
1765. Second moon, eleventh day: earthquake. Sixth moon: great floods, land flooded, houses destroyed, people injured.
1766. Great drought.
1767. Third moon, twenty-first day: great storm, trees uprooted and houses destroyed. Sixth moon, twentieth day: earthquake.
1769. Autumn, a comet.
1770. Seventh moon, twenty-ninth day. In the evening the north quarter of the sky became red as if on fire.
1771. Sixth moon. Continuous rain from second to ninth days. Crops ruined; famine.
1774. Second moon, second day: great storm which made the sands fly and the rocks roll, burst open houses and uprooted trees. Heaven and earth became black. Eighth moon: locusts.
1775. Summer, great drought. Eighth moon, seventeenth day: earthquake.
1783. From first to sixth moon, no rain; food excessively dear.
1785. Eighth moon, tenth day. Earthquake.
1790. Tenth moon, sixth day. Earthquake.
1791. Tenth moon, ninth day. Earthquake.
1796. First moon, second day. A sound like thunder rolled from north-east to south-west.
1797. Eleventh moon, second day. "Heaven's drum" was heard.
1801. Fourth moon. A star was seen in the north, of fiery red colour; it went westward, and was like a dragon. Summer and autumn, great drought: all grass and trees withered. Famine in winter.
1802. Tenth moon. Wheat eaten by locusts.
1803. Great snowfall.
1807. Seventh moon. Comet seen in the west, dying away in the tenth moon. Good harvests.
1810. Floods. In spring, devastation was caused by wolves.
1811. Eighth moon. A comet was seen, more than forty feet long. There was a great famine. During this year there were seventeen earthquakes, the first occurring on the ninth day of the fourth moon, the last on the sixteenth day of the ninth moon.[41]
1812. Famine in spring. The people lived on willow-leaves and the bark of trees. Multitudes died of disease. The district-magistrate opened the public granaries. The famine continued till the wheat was ripe.
1813. Wolves caused devastation from this year onwards until 1818. The year 1816 was the worst, and the officials organised expeditions to hunt the wolves with dogs.
1815. A comet was seen in the west.
1817. Fourth moon, eighth day. Earthquake and loud noise.
1818. Sixth moon, floods. People drowned. A kind of temporary lifeboat service was organised by the officials.
1821. Famine. Locusts. A deadly pestilence in autumn. Fourth moon, a repetition of the celestial phenomenon mentioned under the date 1725.
1823. Earthquake.
1835. Sixth and seventh moons. More than forty days of rain. Government help given to the people.
1836. Famine. Food and seed provided by the officials. Abnormally high tides this year.
1838. Fourth moon. A plague of locusts. The district-magistrate collected the people of the country, and went out at their head to catch and slay the insects. After a few days they utterly vanished. Excellent harvest thereafter.
1839. From fourth to seventh moon, crops spoiled by excessive rain. Tenth moon, twelfth day, a noisy earthquake. From the sixteenth to the twenty-third of the same month rain fell